Unhoused Californians Are Getting Older, And They’re Staying Unhoused Longer

Californians experiencing homelessness are aging. And the older they get, the more time they tend to spend unhoused.

That’s one of the major findings in a recent study from UC San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. The researchers found that for unhoused Californians aged 50 years or older, their current spell of homelessness lasted a median of 25 months. For those under 50, the median was 20 months.

“The older you are when you first become homeless, sort of the more stuck in homelessness you get,” said UCSF professor of medicine Dr. Margot Kushel, one of the researchers behind the study.

More than 181,000 Californians are currently experiencing homelessness according to the most recent statistics, making up more than a quarter of all unhoused people nationwide. About 48% of single adults experiencing homelessness in California are now over the age of 50.

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“This is a rapidly increasing group,” Kushel said. “In the early 1990s, about 11% of people experiencing homelessness were 50 and older… Now it's nearly half.”

Why are older unhoused Californians falling behind? 

This aging demographic presents unique challenges to cities and service providers across California already struggling to shelter and re-house people falling into homelessness.

Though the UCSF study did not attempt to pinpoint exactly why older Californians tend to spend more time unhoused, Kushel said homelessness experts have some theories. Older Californians often have fewer job opportunities, she said, either due to age discrimination in hiring or an inability to perform certain work due to poor health or physical impairments.

“The truth is that most people who exit homelessness exit it on their own,” Kushel said. “If you're older, what one needs to do to exit without assistance is just much harder.”

Most social safety net programs are not reaching a majority of older Californians experiencing homelessness.

The UCSF study found that just 15% of unhoused Californians 50 and older are receiving retirement income through Social Security (39% for those 65 and older). Even fewer receive income from pensions (4%) or Veterans Administration benefits (3%). Despite high rates of disabilities within this group, only 12% are receiving Social Security Disability Insurance.

Kushel said even for those who are receiving public benefits, none of the programs pay enough to comfortably afford California rents.

“The truth of the matter is that the cost of housing has skyrocketed,” she said. “They just haven't kept up with the incredible increase in housing costs.”

Experts point to the bottom line: a lack of housing

People directly involved in helping unhoused Angelenos say the underlying cause of the crisis is visible every day: there simply isn’t enough affordable housing for very low-income seniors.

Shayla Myers, senior attorney with the Unhoused People's Justice Project at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said the region does have some low-income housing reserved for seniors — but not nearly enough.

“We have a million too few affordable units for people who are extremely low income in California,” Myers said, citing widely reported estimates on the state’s housing shortage. “The fact that there are some programs — those are a drop in the bucket for what we actually need.”

Experts say unless California’s response to homelessness changes significantly, these trends will likely continue. The UCSF researchers say current trajectories suggest the share of unhoused people 65 and older nationwide could triple by 2030.